Falcons scrape past Gloucester

Newcastle overturned a half-time deficit to edge Gloucester 26-25 in the Aviva Premiership at Kingston Park on Friday.

Newcastle overturned a half-time deficit to edge Gloucester 26-25 in the Aviva Premiership at Kingston Park on Friday.

The result is just Falcons' second Premiership victory of the season.

Although the visitors scored three tries to two, from Olly Morgan, James Simpson-Daniel and Scott Lawson, it was boot of Jimmy Gopperth which proved the difference.

And it was those 16 points from the fly-half, aided by tries from Jordy Pasqualin and James Fitzpatrick which brought much relief to Kingston Park.

The Falcons came into the match rooted to the foot of the table and judging by the opening couple of minutes, they were a side seemingly devoid of confidence.

With the wind against them in the first period, a wayward Jimmy Gopperth kick allowed the visitors to attack the hosts' 22, and good hands from Simpson-Daniel sent Morgan scampering in at the corner.

But Newcastle began to grow into the game and Gopperth responded with a penalty before he converted Pasqualin's try.

Two Freddie Burns' three-pointers regained Gloucester's advantage after 20 minutes. And it was to get worse for the Falcons when Simpson-Daniel once again showed his quality with a superbly taken try.

However, the North East side hit back when Fitzpatrick powered through a gap after Alasdair Strokosch was yellow carded for a trip.

Despite being 17-20 down, the hosts looked favourites going into the second period with the wind now behind their backs. And Gopperth duly levelled matters with a penalty two minutes into the half, before adding another to give Newcastle the lead.

A third three-pointer in the quarter gave the Falcons a six-point advantage, but Gloucester responded with typical vigour and went over again when Scott Lawson touched down, but Burns missed the crucial conversion.

The visitors looked dangerous late on but they couldn't force the victory.